Stocks fall as earnings disappoint

NRG Energy, Dean Foods slump after lowered forecast

11/12/2013

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Specialist Peter Elkins, left, and trader Michael Smyth work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Stocks are mostly lower in early trading on Wall Street, led by a decline in utilities stocks. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Trader John Liotti, left, and specialist Anthony Rinaldi work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange today.

NEW YORK — Stocks fell back from record levels today as investors reacted to some disappointing company earnings.

NRG Energy slumped after the company lowered its earnings forecast for this year and next. That helped push down the stocks of power companies, making them the biggest decliners in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. News Corp. fell after the company posted an unexpected revenue decline due to weakness at the company’s Australian newspapers.

This year’s surge in stocks has slowed to a grind in November. The market has held on to its gains but hasn’t added to them significantly.

The Dow Jones industrial average has closed at an all-time high on three of the previous four trading days as investors become more optimistic about the economy after an unexpectedly strong jobs report on Friday.

Stocks have climbed to record levels this year as the Federal Reserve has kept up its $85 billion-a-month of bond purchases to keep interest rates low and boost the economy. Now investors may start focusing more on an improving economy rather than the future of economic stimulus, said Joe Quinlan, chief market strategist for U.S. Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management.

“It’s not going to be gangbusters, but this economy is getting a head of steam as we go into 2014,” Quinlan said.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 63 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,721 as of 12:07 p.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 index was down seven points, or 0.4 percent, at 1,764. The Nasdaq composite fell 15 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,904.

Eight of the 10 industry sectors in the S&P 500 index fell, and two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.